In poetry that ranges from formal to experimental, Phyllis Meshulam
chronicles her parents' journey through separation during World War II, her
own history, and the search for the lands of our roots and redemption.

"In this book, the literal 'land of my father's war' is Italy, where the
poet's father served in World War II, and where he took his young family to
live for a while in the aftermath, a place to which the poet has sometimes
returned as an adult. However, the landscape of these beautifully crafted
poems is wider than any one country, and deeper than any one moment in
time. Phyllis Meshulam maps the landscape of consciousness in our time, and
though it is scarred profoundly by the wars we've inherited and that never
seem to end, it is also, as these poems teach us, a landscape where love,
caring, and insight can in fact be nourished, where a wholeness of spirit
is still possible, where one can and perhaps must fervently speak 'in favor
/ of a constancy of kindness.'" - Fred Marchant, author of Said Not Said

"'We only get one chance at certain roads,' sings Phyllis Meshulam in
'Uncertain Roads.' Following the skeins of her poetry, we travel to the
long-ago - places, wars, loves - and know them for ourselves as they are
now. Such grace. Such beauty." - Maxine Hong Kingston, author of I Love A Broad Margin To My Life

"'If you have that writer's demon, it will find an out,' said the poet's
father. And this urgency of spirit has emerged eloquently here in these
poems of perception and even prophecy, in Meshulam's story of becoming.
These poems are the fresh shoots of remembering, asserting themselves
through the concrete of family history." - Joy Harjo, poet, performer,
musician, and teacher

Phyllis Meshulam, poet, teacher, coordinator for California Poets in the Schools and the nation-wide youth
recitation series Poetry Out Loud, is the author of Doll, Moon (Finishing Line Press) and Valley of Moon
(d-press). Her work also appears in literary magazines and the
award-winning anthology Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace. A
graduate of Pomona College with an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts,
Meshulam was the editor for
Poetry Crossing, 50+ Lessons for 50 Years of California Poets in the
Schools.